


He Called Me Special

by chockie



Category: Persona 4
Genre: M/M, based on official dialogue, based on the official scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 09:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11460912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chockie/pseuds/chockie
Summary: If the max social link scene had gone the same, but a tiny bit differently.





	He Called Me Special

**Author's Note:**

> "i was about to punch you in the face but you caught my fist in your hand and just held it and i was so impressed all i could do was whisper b r o and now we're dating AU"

“There’s something I wanted to tell you.”  Yosuke looked solemn, only emphasized by the silhouetted light crowning the outline of his profile. His face was not the goofy lopsided grin Souji was so used to. In his mind, Souji urged him to continue, to quit the stalling and cut to the chase, and he was so impatient his foot was almost tapping away at the frosty grass, but of course he could keep it under wraps and retain his omnipresent composure. Still, his eyes darted across the scenery before them on the riverbank and then back to Yosuke’s face, still looking away, hoping to instill  _some_  kind of urgency. The silence was tangible. Souji watched the tiny puffs of air that Yosuke breathed vanish into the air, and then he inhaled-

“Somewhere deep down…” 

Internally, time froze for Souji, and his heart began to race and stop dead simultaneously. A number of possibilities formed themselves lightning-quick; Or rather, one possibility, with himself flip flopping around it in a frenzy.  _It can’t possibly be. I fantasized about it, sure, but he’s too… not like that to actually reciprocate… He’s Yosuke, after all. But everything that’s happened, and he’s my partner– But he’s so blatantly against it– But, this is such a cliche way just like in everything I’ve ever seen–_

The timestop crashed as reality pressed play again.

“… I didn’t trust you.” 

_Oh, shit._

Souji thought the constant heart racing/stopping would leave him writhing and gasping for air in cardiac arrest in seconds.

“No, it’s more like… I was jealous of you.” 

Yosuke closed his eyes, trademark sheepish grin in place. Perhaps to mask his awkward sadness.

“Coming from the city to the countryside, I thought you’d be bored out of your mind here. But as soon as you got here, you called your Persona… Became our leader, gathered people… You’re a hero. I like you for that, and I’m proud of you… But I guess I was jealous at the same time.”

The silence was back again, and somewhere he was faintly aware it was his cue to say something, to just respond, but the words “ _I LIKE YOU”_  and “ _I’M PROUD OF YOU_ ” were still ringing like fucking tinnitus and leaving him dazed. His autopilot took the wheel, of course.

“… It can’t be helped.” Souji felt himself crack a small, weird smile. 

“You get jealous of people, too…?” After a moment of silence, Yosuke chuckled. Souji never thought it was possible to be relieved at the sound of just another person chuckling. As had been the case since he had come to meet and know Yosuke, he was once again proven wrong about people. “Haha, I can’t picture it.”

_You don’t have the faintest clue._

“… When I called you ‘special’, I thought some more about it. I think out of everyone, I wanted to be acknowledged by you the most, so… I want you to hit me!” 

Souji stared. Baffled. 

“Give me a good one. Knock out all this crap inside of me. I want to be  _equal_  with you. I want us to stand shoulder to shoulder. So c’mon…” 

Again, came the timestop. He wanted to bury his face in his hands and claw at his head and shake his head until his muddled thoughts- his thoughts were never supposed to be muddled, Souji Seta is always perfectly clear headed so this was wrong, wrong, wrong- just all went away and just break this invisible physical barrier keeping them apart with his own fists and his katana and fucking Izanagi, or something, and just get onto one knee and beg for Yosuke to- 

Beg for Yosuke to what?

Souji’s eyes dilated. Resume.

“All right, but you hit me first.”  _Perhaps if he gets this silly thing out of his system the dilemma ends and we can go back to our comfortable friendship where things weren’t like this constantly. God knows I could take the hit. Easily._ The snide tone was not helping his case, internal or no, he thought to himself. 

“Huh…? B-but, I don’t have a reason to hit you…” Yosuke turned to face himself, fully, and crossed his arms with an eyebrow cocked and a frown. 

Souji watched the second hand tick in his partner’s clock. Ages later, a wobbly smile formed, slowly filling out to be a much more familiar one of trust. 

“I got it now. If we’re ‘equal’, then… I guess you’re right.” Yosuke dropped into his fighting stance.  _We’re really going to do this? We’re really going to do this._  Souji had to choke back a laugh.

“Okay, here I come! Take your best shot, partner!”

_Give me your worst._

Souji’s eyes dipped into the shadows for a hair’s breadth of a second and then he was back, he was ready, he was  _there_ , and all at once Yosuke was approaching and his fist was drawn back-  _the position is all wrong, actually, his shoulder is too tensed and his elbow is angled too high_ \- and it was coming closer towards him, on a beeline to connect with his face.

Instinctively, he caught it. The brute force impact certainly traveled through the laws of momentum, and he felt his feet scuff the ground just a little, but he had definitely caught it.  _Ah, whoops. Whoops a daisy._

Their eyes connected, Yosuke’s confused ones with Souji’s ever tranquil grey. 

“Dude…?” 

Perhaps it was his years of practiced suaveness, but before he could stop himself his hand closed around his partner’s and squeezed it. Gently. Yosuke’s mouth opened, but it quickly closed again, as if he had chased away any kind of response he could muster that would have been inadequate anyway. 

Slowly, he pulled Yosuke closer to him, and their slight height difference-  _5cm_ , Souji recalled absentmindedly- became ever more apparent as Souji’s stare bore deep into Yosuke’s soul. It felt pure. Whatever he was doing, it felt  _right_. 

Their faces were inches from each other. Yosuke spoke again, only managing a whisper- 

“…Partner?” 

He couldn’t take it anymore, so he closed the distance and kissed him. 

**Author's Note:**

> it's short, i know, but it felt really right to end it with that xddd


End file.
